Banana Design Lab beating heart

I’m not sure where I first came across Banana Design Lab. Could have been on the craftzine site over here when they reviewed the ChuChi nightlight plush. Or perhaps it was on BoingBoing over here. Either way, I wandered over to their site, and completely fell in love with their products. Yet somehow I just kept putting off purchasing one. Last week I saw that they were asking for people to review the products over on their facebook page. Yay! I jumped at the chance. A few days later wonderful packages showed up at my door. The beating heart is pretty awesome. Its like having a little kitten to snuggle up with, minus the scratching, shedding and litter box. Even better- it showed up when Alexis was visiting. She also happened to be wearing a great green dress…. photo shoot time! At first holding a pillow with a heartbeat is a little off-putting. The beat is slower than your heart, so it seems to be dragging a bit. But after a moment, with the heartbeat sitting right over your solar plexus- suddenly you realize you’re relaxing. The circular rhythm of the beat is soothing. The whole thing is strangely calming. Strange only because it’s a pillow. An awesome, soft, heart-beating pillow.

back of the LED fireplace

To make the whole thing even better… I was also sent a little fireplace! It’s a “Fireplace Simulacra,” a little LED board that attaches directly to a 9-volt battery. The lights flicker as “flame” inside a TV frame. Simulated Yule-Log. And odd as it sounds, it’s actually really neat. The flicker is subtle, the glow the perfect shade of orange. I wish I had one of these when I was living in center city with the bricked in fireplace. Would have looked great sitting on the mantle. Oh, and it has a timer, too. So even though there is an on-off switch, when you forget that you left it ‘on’ and go to sleep, you won’t have a dead battery in the morning. Pretty rad. I bet it’d be a great little stocking stuffer.

I’m now even more of a fan of these Banana Design Lab folks. Clever products, fun packaging and pillows with heartbeats… whats not to love?